A Bio-Weapon's Rhapsody

Chapter 318: The Spark

"... I am unsure." Ale ended up answering the question. "I don't know how much control or how these sparks you say react. I didn't even know about them before you mentioned them briefly, is what [Vulcanus] was trying to achieve, right? The artificial spark.""Ah, right," [Elder] said as he remembered that, "Thank you for that, I would not have regretted it, but having my [Core] not become crippled does help."

"If what you are saying is true, then I went through one already did I not?" Ale said thinking on the previous explanation, "And that made my [Core] move closer to the perfect form for it."

That couldn't be right, wasn't she able to do that before? Or not... Actually, wasn't Main Core the one doing that before?

Thinking closely on that, Ale and Alexa had given the orders to Main Core, who sent the Nanites to interface with the devices. So the connection was Nanites > AI Core > Main Core > Ale/Alexa.

Did that mean that Ale could jump all of those steps then? Was that how Ale was interfacing with Main Core then?

"That's my guess." [Elder] said at that timming, "Any guess on what your first spark was? That is the most important one as it usually decides what you will be. Most of us Tinkerers get an older one badgering us to work only in what we want to do... But you didn't have that, probably triggered the spark somewhere along the way of your last mission, so it may be combat oriented, which isn't the worst for a tinkerer... but it can become an issue, since we don't get naturally stronger combat powers."

"You already know that too, don't you?" Ale said sighing, "You already know what my first spark was and how it affects me."

"Heh, cheeky brat." [Elder] ruffled Ale's hair with his right hand as he put the tablet by the side, "I had a guess, as did [Vulcanus] and to some minor degree Gabriel and Eleanore."

"They too?" Ale was surprised at the last two mentions, not so much about [Vulcanus], he probably had an inkling since [Vulcanus.exe] knew more about what Ale really was.

"Yeah," [Elder] said nodding, "Like I said, you probably are moving closer to becoming a technopath the long way, which is the better way. Nothing good comes from a human suddenly being able to interface with a machine, our brains aren't wired the right way to hold that much data in one burst."

...About that...

...Well, good thing that Ale was not planning to remove those!

"Which means, that your next step is to find how that affects your Core Powers on the long run." [Elder] snapped his fingers and a series of walls were raised around them, in those walls were all kind of weapons and body armors, also some piles filled with scrap metals and broken weapons.

That weird itch at the back of Ale's head once again raised its ugly head and made Ale all annoyed.

"Sorry about the itch." [Elder] said with a smirk, "Try to ignore it, it should get better with some practice."

"What is it?" Ale asked annoyed, trying to not think too much on it, "It wasn't there before."

"Our brain was rewired, think of it like a pathology problem that we got saddled with." [Elder] pointed at the broken pieces of weapons and armors, "We see the pieces and how they should look according to our own [Cores]. For me, that means that every piece of armor and weapon there should be fixed and prepared for high-speed combat."

Really?

Ale couldn't help but think about how those should look, for her... Half of these could make a good heavy armor, while the others could probably work as sub-weapons for Nuzzler armor.

There was a nice piece of blades that she could mold into a Katana too. But she had the [Arm-mament], so using a Katana with that may become awkward...

"We leave them be as a training aid," [Elder] suddenly spoke bringing Ale's back from her ruminations, "We aren't our [Cores], we should not let them change how we behave."

...That sounded about right. So Ale stopped thinking about those (She tried to stop anyway). The inkling about fixing them didn't stop however.

"So, the first thing we need to know is this." [Elder] pointed Ale to the center of the room, there her previous body armor was sprawled, with the damage and the ruined parts from when she had shoot the modified weapon. Some of the burnt parts still remained and Ale could see how bad it was. "What does your [Core] say to you? Can you still use this? Is it still worth the effort to accommodate it?"

Did it?

"We made it so you could still use your powers and accommodate a normal shapeshifter." [Elder] pointed at some of the joints, "These were designed to accommodate sudden change of size and form, they can bend in angles that normal humans couldn't tolerate, and we even made it sturdier, since you were registered as a regenerator too."

And yet, the armor was damaged and ruined beyond what most would think was viable.

"I see..." Ale walked toward it and looked around it, she liked the armor, and she hadn't used it that long, even if it felt long in some instances, but the reality of it was that she had used it maybe two times, perhaps three at most.

She didn't really have any complaints about it, she could see how her use of the anti-material rifle had damaged the suit, and that was kind of a surprise since most of the damage was tanked by her own body at the time.

"Go wild kiddo," [Elder] said smiling at her, "If you haven't actually made something, this will be your first step as a tinkerer, and while your first spark was used. This will probably shape how your [Core] will evolve further beyond the line."

"Even if my first Spark was used?" Ale said surprised, "How does that even work?"

"You need to get a feel for how the sparks are spent." [Elder] said as he sat as far away from the center of the room as he could, "Get a feel for what it feels like and so you can ensure that you don't waste them next time the elevator annoys you from how inefficient it is."

"So the idea is for me to burn a Spark in something I will actually need or use." Ale understood now more about it, "And since my body armor will be something that I will definitely need and use..."

So that was a good way to get a feel for it, Ale had most definitely not felt when she used one of those [Sparks], so then what should she even do here?

"Main Core." Ale stated aloud, [Elder] already knew of Main Core anyway, "Start recording."

Ale closed her eyes and started to think, started flexing her mana and moving it around her body, what did she want? What could she do? She needed a body armor to protect her body, she needed a body armor to help her use her power better.

But what was her power?

She had confirmed that she could no longer access to the shapeshifting power. Not fully, she still had access to some part of it, she could change her body and let it transform back into Alexa.

She could still do that, but could she change as she wished? Not really. She was no longer a true shapeshifter, but could she still use part of its for her ends?

"Yes." Ale felt that part of it was still accessible to her. So she touched the armor with her right hand, letting her mana run wild and flood the armor.

Ale's mana turned into Nanites and flooded the make of the armor, deconstructing and turning into liquid metal made out of the parts that it had been used to create the armor.

Ale had never seen her nanites act or even do something like this before, but she let them, she could still feel the connection to them, and Main Core was at the back recording and ensuring everything that was happening was under control.

Instead of focusing on that, Ale let her mana continue wandering, it was almost as if it was asking her what she wanted.

"I want an armor." Ale said as the liquid metal started to cling to her body, "I want a means to use my weapons easily, I want a way to ensure I have enough power that I will not need to be protected."

Ale wanted enough power to use the type of weapons she had used and achieve what she needed, she wanted to be able to use the 120mm round again without having to burn her flesh and break her bones.

She wanted to be able to stand up to the type of enemies she would make, she wanted to be able to protect Alexa, Big Sister and even [Golem]. And for that, she needed more than an armor.

An armor would only protect the exterior after all, if it was breached then her body would be at risk, and that would need safety measures to keep her safe.

But if it wasn't an armor what she needed, then what did she need?

"Oh... I see..." Ale turned her eyes to the liquid metal as it started to seep into her body, while her flesh was no longer malleable, what she made out of it was still fair game.

And her body was suffused with mana, was it not? If she could change her mana into nanites, her mana into mechanisms, why couldn't she change her body into a machine?

She had experience doing it after all, she had the memories of how it felt to mold her body, she was at some point a ShapeShifter. So she would continue doing so.

[Elder] had said that she had moved away from a shapeshifter into a [Tinkerer], but that was not right either, she was merely changing what she changed into.

"I am still capable of shifting." Ale smiled, "It just changed what I change into."

And with that thought, it all made sense, what she needed, what she could do. Her body slowly absorbed the liquid metal and the armor grew around her body, or well, not armor, not really. What she had was closer to a shell.

It was also part of her body as much as her skin, but the interior was different, instead of flesh and blood, now there was metal and oil. Instead of organs, she had parts, and instead of a heart she had an energy core.

"Well..I'll be damned to hell." [Elder] finally spoke, had it ended? "I did not see that one coming, even if I was ready for it."

[Elder] lowered his hand, Ale had not noticed at what point he had raised his arm.

That was good to know.

"What did you expect to happen?" Ale said as she opened and closed her hands, testing for something that had gone wrong or something failing, nothing so far, "All green?"

"I suspected you had some degree of connection to a Nanite Core." [Elder] said smiling at her, "Only reason why [Vulcanus] and the Saintsworths would be this interested on you. Vulcanus probably wants one to try and finish his body, and the Saintsworths always try to get one that is sane."

"And you?" Ale said looking at the weapon on [Elder]'s hand, "Will you pull the trigger? Everyone says a Nanite Core is dangerous after all."

"But you aren't one, are you?" [Elder] said lowering the weapon, "And this one will not do anything to you anyway."

"How can you know that for sure?" Ale asked as she closed her eyes for a second, focusing on the feeling that she had experienced before, and trying the opposite, "Just because I am not a mass of gray particles wanting to consume everything around me?"

"That and because you just did that." [Elder] said pointing with his other hand at Ale, "Not many can return to humanity after they go that far."

Ale had returned to her normal [Human form], she could feel the presence of her armor at the back of her mind, not like how it was when they stored it on the [Banked Storage]. She didn't have that firm of a connection either, it was almost as if Alexa was letting her use her toys, rather than something she knew was hers.

"So, what's the diagnosis?" Ale asked sighing in relief, she did not want to fight against [Elder], lest here, at the heart of his power. "What type of Core I am?"

"Tinkerer Core, Technopath Shifter." [Elder] said with a shrug, "You already know that, don't you?"

"Yeah." Ale said opening and closing her hand, shifting from flesh to the mechanical arm she had used before, "I can interface with machines because I can turn into one. And it seems that I have moved from needing biomass to needing machines to consume."

Ale had felt as if she had the nuzzler armor, and now she could turn into a machine with some of the functions of the Nuzzler armor, she could do more than the nuzzler armor of course, it was a reinforced exosuit if anything.

Actually... "Wait, does that mean I don't need the mask?" Ale said after thinking on what it meant to eat the nuzzler armor, the helmet had some of the functions of the mask did it not?

"Of course you still need it." [Elder] said that, breaking her hopes, "The software is still tied to my network, try to not overwrite the authority of the administrator. The network is designed to break down if someone else tries to take over, most new tinkerers that can interface with it try it at some point, so I am telling you ahead of time, you break that, you don't get to access it again till next month."

That... was fair actually.

Ale sent inwardly to Main Core,

Oh, well, poor [Elder], better if he does not find out about that.

Ale sighed in relief, at least she was not going to waste them in stupid stuff, and she still had three remaining huh?

[Elder] had said that people usually didn't know how many they had... So she had five total? Wonder where that number came from?